SLIS NEWS: Five Years with USC, Important Dates, CHIL Program and 5 Things (Aug 23, 2010)

Aug 23, 2010

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This is the beginning of my fifth year here at the University of South Carolina. I still wake up before my alarm, excited and ready to come to work. I still love walking through the doors of Davis each morning and treasure everyone I work with. I think we are doing important work and that holds its own reward. I really appreciate our alumni and all the great things you do for our communities! If there are things you think I should be doing differently please send your ideas by email to hastings@sc.edu or call me at 803-777-3858.

Our faculty and staff planning retreat was a great success with several good products. We have an updated working plan to share with our advisory councils at their November meeting, an orientation task force investigating different options and scenarios for our orientations, and a good start on feeding our evaluation data back into our planning process. Oh, and we all know what a QEP is. . .

I am headed to Virginia this weekend to celebrate the newest graduates of our West Virginia/Virginia Cohort. Dr. Wallace does a wonderful job at making all feel welcome and proud. She turns the Waynesboro Country Club into a graduation paradise. I hope to see you many of you there and am looking forward to the convocation!

We have a great new Calendar of Important Dates from our Student Services staff, located at http://slisstudentservices.wikidot.com/. Let me highlight a couple of fun events that you are most welcome to attend:

September 14, Tuesday – Annual Literacy Leader Awards Ceremony – 5:00 SC State Library (don’t miss this one! There will be a special announcement and star-studded cast!)

October 3 – 8 – ICOMM Week (scholarly showcase from our college with storytellers on the steps of Davis College, Sunday night October 3 and the seminar with Dr. David Carr at 2:00 on October 8 – plan on joining us for a reception for Dr. Carr immediately following the session -- see below for more details.)

October 20 – 22 – SCLA in Myrtle Beach (Don’t miss our students’ posters!)

November 5 – Gamecocks on the Green

November 19 – Fall Fling at Dr. Sam’s

Dr. Arns and Dr. Williams received federal IMLS funding for our doctoral program for "Cultural Heritage Informatics Leadership (CHIL): An Experiment in Responsive Doctoral Education" We will use the IMLS funding to support seven doctoral fellowships. Students will participate in an experimental course with a curriculum that will require interdisciplinary coursework and full-time field placements specifically designed to explore the common threads that unite museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions. Partners include the McKissick Museum, the Digital Projects Lab in Thomas Cooper Library and the Center for Digital Humanities. There is a link to apply off the main SLIS website.

As part of the CHIL initiative, we are offering a seminar series this fall titled “Conversations with David Carr: Four Motives for Cultural Institutions: Grounded Trust in Libraries and Museums.” The conversations are devoted to the foundations of public cultural institutions, their value in contemporary American culture, learning in adult life, and possible futures for services and experiences in libraries and museums for the early years of the Twenty-first Century. The seminars are at 2:00 in Davis 112. The complete schedule and topics are listed at http://www.libsci.sc.edu/carr/davidcarr.html. Everyone is welcome!

We welcome three new faculty members this year: Dr. Karen Gavigan, Dr. Susan Rathbun-Grubb, and Gerry Solomon. Their information is at http://www.libsci.sc.edu/fsd/index.htm. We also have two new doctoral students, Anmol Kalsi and Peter Obidabe. Our faculty and staff are delighted to welcome them to Carolina. We will have our official welcome at the Fall Fling at my home on Friday, November 19 at 6 p.m. Details will follow but S’mores and Bocce Ball are on the venue!

We are pleased to announce that the first State Library Partnership and Collaboration Award winner is our own Ms. Helen Fellers, Coordinator of the South Carolina Center for Children’s Books and Literacy. We are sure proud to know her and look forward to the celebration and ceremony on September 8 at 2:00.

I am sure that I have left something out, so many other good things are happening for us so be sure to keep checking our website. In the meantime, here are five things to read and think about:

1. Net neutrality is foremost free speech issue of our time [CNN]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/05/franken.net.neutrality/index.html

2. Books Have Many Futures [NPR]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129251016

3. So-Called "Digital Natives" Not Media Savvy, New Study Shows [ReadWriteWeb]

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/so-called_digital_natives_not_media_savvy_new_study_shows.php

4. Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age [The New York Times]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html

5. The Latest Public Library Loan? Electricity Meters [Library Journal]

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/886381-64/the_latest_public_library_loan.html.csp

It is an honor to work with you all! Here’s hoping you have a great school year filled with learning new things and making the world a better place. Remember, it takes many librarians to keep the earth in balance!

Let me know if there is anything you need!

Dr. Sam